NOW UAE ALSO REQUIRES REGISTERING ALL DRONES

In the wake of tightening drone laws all over the world, UAE has also made its drone laws stricter with regulation now requiring registering all commercially used drones. This is a one-of-its-kind initiative by the UAE government amongst all other countries around the world.

As increasing instances of interference in airport activities were being reported in the UAE, the ESMA (Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology) recently announced a regulation, in action from September, which will make it mandatory for all commercial and recreational drones to be registered. The sellers and suppliers have been given 3 months time to comply with the new regulation, which is being seen as a move to legalize a budding market.

After several flights had to be diverted and airports closed due to dangerously close drone activities near airports, the airways authority decided to make the rules regulating drones in the emirates stricter.

The registration of commercial and recreational drones will make it easier for tracking the sale and ownership of any drone through a central mechanism which will use the unique serial number allocated to each registered drone. The operator will also be required to meet accordance with the General Authority for Civil Aviation. The drone’s frequency should also be compatible with those provided by TRA.

The high cost of closure of airspace due to drone activity and the dangers that drones pose to aircrafts in flight prompted the government to tighten its drone laws, in the hope that it prevents any incident, such as that occurred in 2016 where unregistered drones caused the closure of Dubai Airport, which lead to delays and significant loss of operational costs at the airport.